More Than A Friend
by Skyress1
Summary: Hunter and Private have been friends ever since Operation: Antarctica, but when Hunte tries to surprise Private, Private realises Hunter is not just a friend...
1. Chapter 1

Hunter sighed to herself. It had just been a day that her penguin friend has gone and she already missed him terribly. He was the only one who trusted her and he was her first and only friend. The cold Antartic waters weren't for the faint hearted and she knew that Private needed to leave but she didn't want him to leave. "Dinners' ready hun!" her father called after her. "It's squid... _again_." Her father hated Antarctica, but he used to love it. That was before people cam and left them with no fish, just squid and penguins. Hunter hated anyone who ate penguins and her father,who was saved by Private, couldn't bare to upset his daughter by eating penguins. "Okay dad, coming," she replied with a lonely sigh. The big leopard seal looked at his daughter. _I wonder what's wrong with her, I'd better ask, _he thought. "What's wrong honey, bored of Antarctica?" he asked. She shook her head. "George, I mean dad, do you think my friend will come here sometime?" she asked, hopefully.

"Nope, see how boring this place is? But you can surprise him and visit him," George said. He knew this would cheer his daughter up and it did. "Yum, sguid!" Hunter exclaimed and dived into the glacial waters of Antarctica. George slowly followed chuckling. _I wish you could see this, Sandra, I really do, _George thought as he remembered the times that his wife was here.

Soon enough the two caught a big enough ammount of squids for a whole week! But it was nowhere hear as good as being full of fishes, shelfish and all the other food that the sea was emptied from. "I sure do wish there was more types of food here, it's gettong a bit dull,I mean our diet is," George said sighing. When his wife was alive, the seas and oceans were filled with dozens of types of fish. Hunter was content. She didn't mind that there was less fish, all that matterd was that she was full and that she didn't eat a single penguin.

As sunlight came for Antarctica, Hunter realised that she was going to do something about her loneliness, she had an idea. She would set out a couple of days before christmas and hopefully she will be able to surprise Private. She knew that she was going to leave soon. Very soon. "Dad? May I set out for my visit tommorow?" Hunter asked. Her father nodded. "But promise you will come back after the festive season, hun, and please be careful," her father said. He was going to miss his intelligent little pup.

_Elsewhere..._

Four penguins were fighting each other. They were in a zoo practising martiall arts. Nothing could surely be more crazier and more abnormal than this, nothing except their lives. The smallest one wasn't behaving like usually. He would usually block his opponent straight away, but this time he was too slow. A flat headed penguin started speaking. "Private, you seem a little down soldier, what's wrong, Lunacorns were cancelled?" the penguin asked. Private shook his headed. "No Skipper, it's just that... do you think I will see Hunter any time soon?" Private asked sadly. The flat-headed penguin simlled. "I am sure you will see her, but unless you return to training you won't survive to see the day!" Skipper said, attacking him again. Private blocked the attack and then counter attacked. He smilled. "If that's the only thing left to do, then it's going to be easy Skippah!" the cute penguin acknowledged. Skipper nodded. "Kowalski, is there a chance he will see Hunter this christmas?" Skipper asked the tall penguin. The tall penguin knew that he'd be asked and so he already had the answer. "Well, due to the fact that the two are friends and Hunters' speed, there is a fifty percent chance," Kowalski answered.

"Then it shall be a surprise if it happens, eh Rico," Skipper said, nodding to the penguin with a scar that was looking up to the Sky. The penguin nodded. "Surprise!" he grunted.

The four penguins had a long day and were prepared to go to sleep. Private spent most of the night twisting and turning, hoping that he will see Hunter again sometime.

_Privates' Dream..._

_Private was in the enclosure with Hunter talking happily. It was christmas and it was his happiest day of his life. His gentle and playful, silver friend was beside him, admiring the snowflakes. "I know it may be a stupid question to ask, but does it snow in Antarctica a lot?" Private asked, smilling sheepishly. Hunter shook her head sadly. "It isn't a bad question, really. We may have ice, but that's mainly compressed snow and frozen ice water, that built up over the years because of the cold. Snow is nice but rara, in Antarctica," she informed him with a gentle smile. "Hey want to play water tig?" Hunter asked. As soon as she did that, the two dived down joyfully into the water._

_They chased each other like kids untill they were tired to swim any longer. They laughed and laughed. "You know what happened to me once?" Private asked. Hunter shook her head, she didn't know anything about the friendly little penguin. "I accidently dressed up like a mermaid!" Private explained. The two of them giggled. "You're funny!" Hunter said," and cute!" This made Private blush. _

_"And you look very pretty," Private complimented his friend. She hugged him and smiled. This was the best day of his life, Private thought._

_End of Dream..._

Private woke up to see it was late at night. The dream felt quite unusuall. He suddenly felt so close to Hunter, yet he was so far away from her.


	2. Hunters' Journey

**Chapter 2**

**Hunters' Journey**

Hunter woke up to realise that she had dark spots on her skin. She was growing up. Oh, oh. Hunter was scared that this day might come, since it meant that she might change, she didn't want to change. What if she turned into a monster? _I'm going to need to hurry, if I want to get to Private before I turn to an adult. Adults are bloodthirsty monsters in the leopard seal world! _Hunter worried.

Without saying goodbye, Hunter dived down as deep as possible and then surfaced about ten meters away from the ice floe she slept on. She swam as fast as she could, hoping that Private would atleast help her from turning into the monster she hated. Her friend was better at reassuring animals and she planned to surprise him. She didn't look back and swam on.

After an hour in the cold water, she registered a slight change in temperature. She decided that she would rest for a minute or two before carrying on. As for her meal, it was the usual kind. Just plain old squid. She really wished she could swim faster, at this rate she wouldn't be able to get there in the month she had. You would think it's easy for a seal to swim the whole day, but seals aren't whales or dolphins, they have to pay for their speed in water. They have to got onto land every while or else they would eget too exhausted and they had to sleep longer than dolphins, so they had to sleep on slow moving ice floes. She didn't even exactly know where she was going, she only ever been beyond antarctica with Private, never alone.

In the next week she realised that she was no longer near the frozen, ice filled waters as she hadn't seen ice or anything like that in ages. She got accustomed to sleeping for short periods of time and faster food, which now even consisted of fish. Fish being more agile and faster than squid, maybe tasted better and filled her quicker, but they were harder to catch because of it. The good thing was that the oceans and sea here were warmer and there were even marine plants in some places, making it a cheerful place. Although Hunter didn't realise it, she was near the coast of south america, which explained why she swarmed around by dozens of children on one of those days. After getting fish from them, she decided to renew her lost trust in humans. She had once been caught in a fishing net of a careless human, but that was now forgiven.

It was getting late and Hunter realised that here the sun falls at night time, even in the summer. This meant she was closer to her destination. Well not just closer, she was now next to the coast of Brazil, were it was filled to the brim with delicious fishes, but unfortunately there were also reef sharks. "Yikes!" she muttered to her self as one came along. It sniffed her. "Hey! What is a leopard seal like you doing here chile?" the shark asked. It must have been an old shark, because it swam slowly and his skin was wrinkly and rough. "I... I wanted to get ... to... to New York," Hunter stuttered nervously, fully aware of how deadly sharks can be when they need food. The shark shook his head. "You know chile, I won't eat you am full and you won't get there without help. I am the only one here who knows the way," The shark explained grinning. "You shouldn't be here anyways, but what am I gonna do?"

The shark ended up guiding her to the coast of New york. The journey had been long and tiring, but by the end Hunter realised she made another friend. "Phillip, you arent going?" Hunter asked. The older shark shook his head. "No chile, I prefer salty seas to fresh water rivers and am old, but we are friends and you can visit me," Phillip said, sighing. Hunter waved to the shark. "Bye my friend," she said and phillip smiled. He looked at her for the last time. "If you go down that river yu should find a comfy travel ruite and remeber the reading lessons, they might come handy."

And they did. Though her 1 month limit was almost over she managed to find a sighn that said 2 miles to central Park Zoo. This was extremely handy, but since she wasn't very fast on land it took a very long time to get to the zoo.

_elsewhere..._

Private was loosing hope. He hadn't seen Hunter for ages and he was getting lonely. Tommorow it was meant to be christmas day and there was no sign of Hunter. Maybe he should visit her, but then he realised he had little chance of managing to get there on his own. He looked at the setting sun and his heart suddenly ached a little. He was sure she wouldn't come. She could have grown up to forget him and turn into a monster or worse, she could have got injured or , or killed.

As he slept in his bunk on christmas eve nightmares shook him awake.

_Privates' Nightmare number 1..._

_Private was looking over the Antarctic landscape, searching for hunter. Seals chased him under the surface of the water and the bare icebergs were cold and unforgiving. He searched for day untill he found his friend, but instead saw something dreadful._

_He saw a corpse of a dead leopard seal on an iceberg. It had wound deeper than any wound he seen. Blood oozed from them covered the ice, making it red. The seals bones poked out. Suddenly a ghost appeared. "Hello Private!" it almost howled those words. "Don't you recognise me...am your friend...it's your fault am dead, it is all YOUR FAULT!" hunter blamed it on Private. Private gulped. "S...sorry, I didn't mean to come late... i... I didn't know anything till now..._

_End of first nightmare..._

Private woke up shuddering. He wanted to scream, but he didn't want to wake up the others, so he just went back to sleep, surrendering himself to his nightmares...

_Privates' second nightmare..._

_Private was so excited to see hunter. She had sent him a letter telling him that she would arrive in about a month. He couldn't wait to see his friend. _

_I the afternoon he saw Hunter coming up to him. At first she looked normal, but close up she looked completely different to the old Hunter. "Hunter, hi there, you've grown sooo much!" Private greeted her cheerfully. He looked at her. She was now black and silver and her used to be blue eyes were now red. Wait what red?! "Hello food!"Hunter greeted him back, with an evil smile. She licked her lips. "Why...d...did you call me food?" Private asked nervously. Hunter didn't answer. Instead she pinned him to the wall of the zoo and the bit him hard. She bit him in the head and tossed him roothlessly over the sky. Then she started biting him even more. "NO! STOP! PLEASE STOP!" he wailed in pain. She gave him another smile. "Ofcourse, I will end this quickly," she said," put first let me enjoy some fun..._

_Private screamed in pain and fright trying to escape Hunters' grasp but she wouldn't let go. He cried and prayed she would finish this of quickly._

_End of second nightmare..._

Private woke up screaming. Noone seemed to hear anything though. Ofcourse, they all had their earholes and ears covered! Private panicked for the rest of the night. This was one Halloween like Christmas.

_Elsewhere..._

Hunter knew she was basically in the zoo, but she waited till morning to step in.

**I hope you found this chapter interesting, though am sorry if I made someone angry by scaring Private. I don't think that Hunter will turn out evil and you?**


	3. A Surprise For Private

Chapter 3 A Surprise For Private

Private woke up feeling rather disappointed. He felt alone without Hunter, but on the other hand he was also releived that his nightmares had gone. He jumped out of his bunk and slowly waddled outside, he didn't feel like hurrying, nor eating.

As he got outside something leaped on him, nearly crushing him. "Hunter?!" Private cried in disbelief. Hunter smiled. "Sorry, I kinda' got over excited," the female seal said, giggling.

"Um... that's okay, actually it's great that you came!" Private said cheerfully. Three penguins popped up. "What's going on Private, some animals are still sleeping, can't you..." Skipper said. He turned around to see Hunter, as did Rico and Kowalski. Rico managed to utter a single 'oh', before, becoming silent again. "Guess we've got a hydrurga leptonyx, with us," Kowalski commented. Hunter gave him a quizzical look. "A leopard seal," Kowalski tried to make it simpler to understand. "Oh,"Hunter said. Kowalski wanted to explain the name, but realised that noone would understand anyway. "Skippah, suppose I could go and have some fun with Huntah, please," Private pleaded. Skipper found it very hard to deny something to Private, but this time he didn't even want to do anything like that. "Fine, I was going to watch the 'Shirtless Ninga Marathon' anyway," Skipper replied after a while. Rico looked at Skipper with an evil look, that said 'I'm taking the space closest to the TV'! "Fine!" Said Skipper, " But only if you can beat me in taekwondo!" And the two began to kick each other and what not.

Meanwhile, Private and Hunter had already disappeared into Central Park, telling each other some jokes and what had happened to them, whilst the other one had been gone. "I met a friendly shark, on my way here," Hunter said. Private shuddered with fear. "A friendly shark?!" he asked in disbelief. He had never thought of sharks as being 'friendly'. "Well this one was friendly, alright, he showed me the rest of the way, I would have been lost, if it weren't for him," Hunter said. She smiled. "Okay," accepted Private. He knew that a lot of the time, the dangerour things could actually be friendly and Hunter was an example of this.

"I learned Judo and a couple of card games, but I still don't get 'stomp the wombat'," said Private. "Skippah seemed to always change the rules of that game." Hunter smiled. "I'm sure you'll know how to play that game, someday," she reassured Private. He nodded. The two dcided to go to the pond, so that they could play ganmes. Hunter, being a seal, wasn't very agile on land and water seemed to be more ideal for both of the animals. They dived in the pond and then jumped up, chased each other and then chased the fishes that were in the pond. "Once there was a Snake headed trout here, but Skipper shooed it away," Private said as he swam on the surface of the water. That fish must have been scary! thought Hunter.

It was getting dark, when the two thought it would be best to get back. As the two were slowly getting to the zoo, Officer X stopped them. "See you law braker got another one with you, " he said. Hunter growled at him, but that only made him laugh. "Act, you're the top dog will you, well am top officer and you are just a baby seal!" Private wanted to calm her, but there was nothing he could do. Officer X got a net and caught Private with it, make Hunter go so angry, you could almost say she was feral! Her eyes turned read and she bared her teeth. She jumped up and bit X on his arm. He yelled in pain and dropped the net. "You look tough, but your as weak as a new born seal!" Hunter mocked. The two animal went away.

Private stepped into the HQ first, followed by Hunter, who curiously examined the HQ, from the Tv, to fridge and lastly the bunks. "Looks a bit millitary-ish," Hunter commented. Private nodded. "We are commando penguins so that's how we live." The 'Shirtless Ninja Marthon' had probably ended because the TV screen was off. Private went to look for Skipper, whilst Hunter looked at a dvd, with a picture of a leopard seal. The picture looked scary even for Hunter, what she didn't know though, was that it was what made three out of four penguins sick, Rico being the only one, who's stumach was normal after that horror. She shuddered and turned her head around. This HQ was rather cool. Suddenly Kowalski walked by and asked," what are you looking at?" She shrugged her soulders. "You better not be looking at the files, Skipper doesn't allow that, it would cost you a friendship." Hunter tipped her head to the side, hoping to get a proper answer, but none came.

Skipper and Private came an hour later, since Skipper was trying to rescue sad eyes and Private had been searching for him everywhere. It ended well, but ringtail had kicked sad eyes away, as the tiny lemur tried to hug Julien's feet. The tiny lemur fell in a dustbin, but the penguins ignored that since they had other things to do. "I hope she didn't look in any files!" Skipper said. "If she did or will do, it'll cost both of you a freindship." Private couldn't understand what Skipper meant by that and so he just continued walking. They stepped inside the HQ. The light was on which meant Hunter was still here. "Hi!" the leopard seal greeted them. Skipper said nothing. Private however greeted her back. "Sorry, but it took me ages to find Skippah."  
"I don't mind, but it's good that you're back, and what does 'it would cost you a freindship' actually mean? I hope that it doesn't mean what I think it means," hunter asked. Skipper nodded. "It means exactly that," he added. "Why?"  
"Not any reason, except that there will be less excitment, " Hunter said.  
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Do you think that Hunter may have lied a bit? Hunter: "I most certainly did not!"  
Skipper: "Did too!"  
Hunter: "Did not!"  
Skipper: "Did too!"  
Kowalski: "You mind arguing a little quieter, I am working on my atomic-refresherizer!"  
Skipper: "Whatever that is, you could have picked a better timne."  
Hunter and Private: "Agreed"  
Anyway please review, I really do appreciate your reviews. 


	4. Snowcones

Hunter was playing 'stomp the wombat' with Private and Rico, who tried to burn the cards to a cinder at one point. She found the game interesting, but very confusing.

"So do I go now... or does Rico want to try and burn them again, before we start?" she asked, looking at Rico, who by this time manage to regain self-control over his actions. He smiled evily, but then he turned serious again and nodded towards her. She placed her card down and said, "Private, now you have to pick eight," she said cheerfully. Ofcourse, she was meant to get the cards, not loose cards, but she wasn't a sore looser, she didn't mind loosing. Then she went a little more serious. "Which means i am out of cards, Private, you're great at this game."

Soon Rico lost too, so Private had clearly won. He squeeled in joy and then came up with an idea. "Why don't we go for some snowcones?" Private offered. The other two animals nodded. Private walked up to Skipper, who was going over some paper work.

Skipper hated paper works, he hated it just as much as he hated ringtail. Right now he was going over some training statistics and drinking fish-coffee as he did so. He hadn't realised Private was coming to him, so he just continued scanning them. He wasn't good at reading, but he still could read. All the penguins could read, but kept it a secret. They told noone.

"Skippah?" Private interupted Skipper from his scanning. Skipper slowly turned around, with an annoyed expression. "Could Rico, Hunter and I go to the park for snowcones?"

"Fine..." Skipper replied, still annoyed. "But don't interupt me again, soldier."

"Aye, Skippah," Private said and cheerfully walked off.

The two other animals smiled and followed Private as he disappeared behind his own prize in the shape of a fish. Then they all climbed up the ladder, which led them to a food bowl. They pushed it to the side and jumped onto a small concrete island. They walked out of the enclosure and zoo, right inside the park.

The group of three did quite well, although Hunter had some difficulties when moving on land. Seals don't stay on land for too long and don't walk on land either. It is just a way to survive shark attack and whale attacks. It also was a way of re-grouping, but either way land was even less of a specialty for Hunter than it was for the penguins. Luckily, Rico managed to take out a bicycle which helped out reasonably well, so they were on the road again.

They soon managed to get to the snowcone cart and Hunter, Private and Rico hid behind a bush. As soon as the coast was clear, they toboganned forward and then leaped out and grabbed the snowcones. Thenthey left as if nothing had happened, leaving the snowcone seller's cart still with some snowcones. He barely noticed the shortage and continued making more snowcones. The animals meanwhile high-oned each other and smiled victoriously. Then the escaped back to the zoo.

"How was the mission, soldier?" Skipper asked Private. Then he glared at Hunter. "And I hope you haven't blown our elite cover!" She shook her head. Then she smiled. "If I wanted to do that I would have done that as the first thing since I came back here," she said. Private nodded. "Don't worry Skippah, Huntah is a friend." Hunter thanked him for protecting her. "No worries, what are friends for, besides it isn't a lie."


End file.
